NORFOLK, Va. — This time 21 years ago, in 2003, Hampton Roads felt the brunt of Hurricane Isabel, one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the area in decades.
Hurricane Isabel had been a Category 5 hurricane off the coast in the Atlantic, the first Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic since Hurricane Mitch five years earlier.
Maximum winds reached as high as 165 mph offshore before the storm was downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane when it made landfall on the coast of North Carolina.
Isabel stormed ashore near Cape Lookout with sustained winds of around 100 mph.
Isabel produced a storm surge of seven to 10 feet in North Carolina. The storm then raced northwestward passing just west of Richmond and Winchester.
In Hampton Roads, hurricane-force wind gusts pounded the region, ripping signs off buildings, downing hundreds of trees, and shutting off power to millions across Virginia for more than a week.
And in Norfolk, tides reached their highest levels since the 1933 Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane. Water levels at Sewells Point reached 7.89', just inches below the record tide of 8.02'.
The strong storm surge and rising waters flooded the Midtown Tunnel between Norfolk and Portsmouth with 44 million gallons of water. Workers trying to secure the floodgates on the Norfolk side barely escaped. The resulting damage closed the tunnel for nearly a month.
Over twenty years later, many remember Isabel as a monster of a storm.
When all was said and done, Hurricane Isabel took a devastating toll on Virginia, costing the state more than $1.8 billion in damage, making it the costliest natural disaster ever in the Commonwealth.